No Bumrah, no Bhuvi, no Saha.I thought BCCI's batting would be put to the test but now I think the bowling could struggle a lot too.Hope no one else breaks down.I'd like to see a well-contested Test series, not another of those walkovers.

Katto wrote:England should win unless the BCCI lean on the ECB to prepare friendly wickets.

I'm coming around to backing the idea of doing away with the coin toss. The statistical data indicates much more interesting series would be on offer.

ECB will prepare friendly wickets.Makes most commercial sense.Wouldn't want to prepare wickets that expose BCCI batsmen.Especially considering BCCI doesn't have Bhuvi, their best bet in typical English conditions.

It will be friendly wickets, Kohli will get runs and redeem his reputation in England, BCCI fans (and there are hordes in England) will be thrilled, everyone will party, ECB will make loads of money.

I won't be surprised if the series ends level, or ECB even lose.Small sacrifice to make for the money it will rake in.It's not like English folks are going to get worked up about a series defeat to BCCI.Rather BCCI will get hugely chuffed - and shower even more money on ECB.

The boards (and thereby all associated parties) making money is the main goal here - cricket is just the by-product.

Earlier I said that in this BCCI-England series, I would be supporting BCCI.Now I'm not sure anymore.A part of me wants to see England lose, but I think a bigger part of me wants to see BCCI thrashed.Especially because BCCI worshippers annoy me much more than England worshippers (are they any?)

The average England fan is so much more likeable than the average BCCI fan. :-)

ha. some crooked management prevented an all out by declaring at 88 overs only instead of usual 90 overs of the day. Ass whopping overshadows saving blushes anyday. I say the day belongs to BCCI, good job boys!

I can't remember a single chanceless Tendulkar Test 100. And Tendulkar had 51 Test hundreds!Kohli is probably better in that respect - he might be having the odd chanceless one.But it's IN England that your runs really matter.

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46.4Stokes to Kohli, 1 run, dropped! Stokes is down on his knees. He affords a smile. But it was a tough one for Malan. Very full and outside off, Kohli down on his back knee looks to squeeze it out, the outside edge flies to the right of second slip, Malan dives across and gets his hand to it. A third slip would have gobbled that up, but England have two slips and a gully and the ball went right between the two. Since it was to Malan's right he went for the catch and was only able to shell it

31Anderson to Kohli, no run, dropped! By Malan at 2nd slip. Anderson is so so unlucky. This is fantastic bowling once more, drew him across finally and made him play at a full outswinger, the edge carried nicely to Malan. Straight in and out. Can't believe it are the Englishmen. Kohli gets a life. No justice for Anderson

28.6Anderson to Kohli, no run, beats him neck and crop. Not sure Kohli knew too much about that. This cut back in sharply from a short of length and Kohli was late to cover it up, past the inside edge and through to Bairstow. Fantastic over where he once again troubled the Indian captain

And this, when Kohli hadn't even got off the mark.----16.1Anderson to Kohli, 2 runs, hands on heads for the English. Just about carried to Buttler at gully. And he can't cup it. Lucky escape for Kohli. The driving length outside off, lures Kohli into the shot, the edge went low and to the left of the diving Lancashire-man, fingertip stuff that

My favourite players in this BCCI side are:Kohli: for his grit (I admire him for this)Rahul: for his talent (I can watch him bat all day; but he stupidly gets out with one extravagant shot too many)Ashwin: his persistence (I admire this). He has come in for a lot of flak for being a sub-continent bowler. Fair enough. But I think he's a fighter, and keeps trying to improve.

The ones I'm not keen on:Dhawan and Pujara are rubbish for English conditions. Am glad Pujara isn't playing. He's not even done well at county level - and has had many opportunities.

The rest I don't mind, whether it is Murali Vijay or Rahane or Karthik or Pandya.Ishant Sharma continues to be like that persistent cough.No cough syrup works - you just have to grit your teeth and bear it. :-)But he's otherwise ok - who would you pick in his place?